Roughly two years ago, David messaged me on GChat with a link simply saying, “You should write about this.” The link was to the 2003 Christmas Day contest between the Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers.

What stands out the most obviously was on the surface it was a matchup between a then-18-year-old LeBron James and still-very-much-in-his-prime Tracy McGrady. Aside from that, both the Cavs and Magic weren’t very good as both came into the game a combined 16-41, with Orlando starting the season 1-19.

But with the NBA’s stock based largely on the attractiveness of its individual superstars under the thumb of David Stern, covering the game was a bit of a no brainer in retrospect. In December 2003, the infatuation with LeBron was still in its “new car smell” phase. T-Mac, on the other hand, was neck deep in his Orlando stint largely defined by robust stat lines and minimal team success. The Grant Hill/McGrady pipe dream never resulted in the Eastern Conference domination many pegged it would thanks in part to a wicked string of injuries to Hill that ultimately derailed what was spawning into an all-time great career. Meanwhile, with Hill sidelined, the caliber of teammates surrounding Mac during his Magic days never confused anyone for “championship caliber.”

As a senior in high school at the time, I was constantly involved in heated debates with my high school’s assistant basketball coach, Coach Hill (not Grant), over the legitimacy of LeBron’s actual talent. The previous season – when LeBron was a senior year at St. Vincent St. Mary and Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade were becoming living legends on the collegiate circuit – Coach Hill had no issue reminding me in the hallways between classes or at lunch, “He’s just not that good. I’d take Melo or Wade ahead of him any day. Hell, he’s just another high school player everyone’s hyping up. You sold on Kwame Brown yet? Give me Jason Gardner over him with the No. 1 pick.”

I haven’t seen Coach Hill in roughly four or five years to witness if he’s adopting a different tune, but this Christmas Day game in particular provided us weeks worth of back-and-forth material. Orlando won 113-101 in overtime* in what proved to be the marquee game of the day. Tracy edged LeBron in the individual matchup as well posting 41 points, eight rebounds, 11 assists and three steals on 51.7% shooting.

Again, keep in mind, this was during the prime of T-Mac’s scoring prowess and he’d later capture the scoring title that same season. It’d also prove to be his last in a Magic uniform as Orlando shipped McGrady to Houston for Steve Francis and landed the top overall pick in the 2004 draft which would bring them their own “fresh-out-of-high-school” prodigy in Dwight Howard.

LeBron, on the contrary, was already accustomed to the hazing process that came with receiving every star’s best punch. James more than held his own versus T-Mac by posting 34 points, six assists and two steals. His understanding of the game was preposterous, especially considering he had just attended senior prom only seven or eight months earlier. And his talent was beyond evident with Bill Walton fawning over nearly his every leap, cut and sprint. Sobriety only hit upon realizing ‘Bron was still years away from grasping the true lethalness of his Swiss Army Knife repertoire of skills – he’s still learning 10 years later – and his eight turnovers and fair-weather jumper were examples of such.

But if his grand unveiling only weeks earlier in Sacramento didn’t, Christmas 2003 solidified the learning curve for LeBron was vastly different than anyone who had come before him and, in hindsight, after him – the same learning curve making it impossible for current day studs a la Andrew Wiggins or Jabari Parker to blossom into their own due to pop culture’s obsession of heaving comparisons on them they never once requested. LeBron was, and still is, a one-of-one.

James and McGrady would meet several more times throughout their careers with LBJ taking the head-to-head tally 10-8. The final and most recent being on a stage where McGrady had no impact on the series whatsoever, the 2013 Finals. Having said that, Christmas Day 2003 did showcase a long-since forgotten shootout in the annals of NBA history. It even forced Coach Hill to acknlowedge LeBron “balled out,” but he still wasn’t sold he was the type of guy who had the “it” factor.

Progress has always been a tedious and frustrating process.

Nevertheless, meet back here Christmas Day 2014 to revisit Shaq and Kobe’s first dance as opponents on Christmas Day 2004. Let’s just say there may have been a tad bit of animosity in Staples Center that day.

* – Ironically, it was LeBron’s future teammate, Juwan Howard, who put the game away in OT.

some GM’s consider Tmac to be the best basketball talent of all time, he lacked the drive of Jordan, the edge of Iverson and the will of Kobe.
His 32 and 8 season he would wake up just before shoot around and drop 30.
If he werent so lazy he could have averaged a triple double.

I think thats the biggest misconception about t-mac, he was not a lazy player. Saying he lacked Jordan’s drive, Iverson’s edge or Kobe’s will is missing the real problem with his career…..the lack of talent around him. When kobe was on a team with kwame and smush where was his will?

the playoff series vs the suns post shaq era was kobe getting bumped in the 1st round twice by steve nash, and one year missing the playoffs all together.
tmac could do that in his sleep, so i dont think that shows the difference in drive between the two. tmac was notorioius for not getting out of the 1st round so when kobe had no help he was the exact same dude wasnt he?
then they pulled a magic trick and landed gasol and he went right back to the finals. in kobe defense, tmac did have yao ming, he wasnt quite gasol but he shoulda got out the first round with him at least.

Trac has always had a decient cast, he can’t play with his fan. In Toronto, Orlando for some reason never worked, and caution Mobley is better than every pg Kobe has ever had. What when he arrived in la, was a leftover from a forgotten era. He dominated because his peers were gone. Kobe has never had anyone close to the caliber of teammate as Vince Carter.

kobe has never had anyone close to the caliber of teammate as vince carter????
shaq is not the caliber of vince? really? u must really like vince.
tmac was a rookie with vince and they didnt play together when vince became a superstar.
kobe had a all time legend in shaq, and i’d take pau gasol was by far a top 3 big man in the nba when kobe got him. kobe had one the best big men in the league on 2 seperate occasions and won chips, without them he was just a volume shooter and scorer, 81pts.
now i dont know if tmac could actually win with gasol thats another question.

shaq became great when the other great bigs left the game.D. Robinson. Hakeem. Pat Ewing…remember EVERYTIME he met up against one of these teams in the playoffs He got swept out…..Believe it or not Kobe helped make his bigs.
through work ethic and mental toughness and raising the bar of what you expect from yourself. You know(or maybe you dont) the true keys to being a champion.
So the reason why it seamed as if he was just a scorer before is because not everyone was on board. The teams that lost to phoenix should not have been in the playoffs in the first place, the fact that they were competing with one of the highest scoring offenses in nba history, was my point.

Exhibit A: Andrew Bynum
Exhibit B Pau Gasol.
to an extent Dwight Howard can be used as an example of the inverse, someone who couldnt get it, cried and left.

T-Mac is probably my favorite player ever. The guy was simply unstoppable. People say he’s lazy simply because of how he looks. He was one of the greatest players of all time in my book.

He has that droopy sleepy look but he can’t change it because that’s his face. That’s what he looks like. Add on to that he was so smooth that everything he did just looked effortless and easy and it APPEARED that he wasn’t trying hard enough.

I question how many people actually watched T-Mac since he wasn’t really in one of the “primetime” cities and never really had a dominant team. When Yao Ming was there and healthy that Rockets team had championship aspirations.

T-Mac just had bad luck in the league. That’s it. Injuries coupled with less than stellar teammates and he was still carrying teams to the playoffs and dominating. He was an MVP candidate every year but we know how that goes…usually the best player on the best team.

In Orlando, he was supposed to have Grant Hill as a running mate but we all know what happened to Grant Hill.

In Houston, every playoffs Yao Ming was out for the season or injured somehow come playoff time. Teams loaded up on McGrady and he was still averaging over 30 PPG in the playoffs.

He was better than Kevin Durant straight up. T-Mac never even played a full season because he kept getting injured and never won in the playoffs because his 2nd in command was always injured whether it was Yao Ming or Grant Hill. In Toronto, he and VC were too young to really win anything as TMac was a rookie and VC had only 1 year in the league.

You can argue TMac and Kobe until the cows come home.

Kobe never really had to deal with any injuries in his prime and of course played with SHAQ. Then when Shaq left and the Lakers sucked Kobe was trying to get out of town (Internet doesn’t forget). HOw quickly we forget the SMush Parker, Kwame Brown era…until they got Pau Gasol (who was in his prime) and Lamar Odom (also in his prime) and then went on to win some championships.